Lloyds favours Halifax/BoS to revive its Abbey bid

Lloyds TSB hopes that a merger between Halifax and Bank of Scotland (BoS) will help its own bid for Abbey National gain acceptance from the UK Competition Commission.

Sources close to the Lloyds/Abbey deal said that Lloyds was trying to persuade the Commission that a BoS/Halifax merger would counter the anti-competitive concerns raised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT is concerned about a potential monopoly in the provision of banking services to small businesses.